I asked ChatGPT to improve my latest novel and lost no sleep over the results. But I do worry about diverse voices being crowded out This summer two worlds – literature and technology – collided. News stories began appearing about authors suing OpenAI and Meta for using their works to train their large language models “without consent, without credit and without compensation”. I read them with increasing curiosity, and then I found a review of a novella, Death of an Author, which was “95% machine-generated”. I put down my quill and stared out of the window, wondering if my tried and tested productivity hacks of taking the dog for a walk or soaking in a hot tub were no longer going to cut it in this frightening new world.Be brave, I told myself. Experiment with these new technologies or prepare to be replaced by a monkey with an iPhone and a writing app. I lay on my bed and opened up Laika, one of the free creative writing tools I’d read about. Perhaps my latest novel, Love Marriage, could have been vastly improved with this genius tool. I pasted in the first paragraph: “In the Ghorami household sex was never mentioned. If the television was on and a kissing-with-tongues scene threatened the chaste and cardamom-scented home, it was swiftly terminated by a flick of the black box. When Yasmin began her first period, her mother had slipped her a pack of Kotex Maxi pads and murmured instructions not to touch the Qur’an …”This is an edited extract from Monica Ali’s 2023 PEN HG... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-01 06:00:07 UTC ]
Hachette Children’s Group and New Writing North are creating a new award for debut children’s writers from the North of England. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has revealed it is embarking on a review of its policies after being accused of a potential conflict of interest with one of its board members. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN is celebrating the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth by holding an evening of readings with writers and creatives including Ted Hughes Award-winner Jay Bernard and Makar Jackie Kay. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Prominent human rights lawyer Philippe Sands QC is to be the new president of English PEN, taking over from Maureen Freely. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London-based publishing houses are “struggling” to work out how to “address the problem of regional diversity”, New Writing North's Claire Malcolm has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has awarded Amy Liptrot the PEN Ackerley Prize 2017 for her "exhilarating and rigourously unsentimental" memoir The Outrun (Canongate). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has appointed Antonia Byatt, director of 2016's Cheltenham Literature Festival, to step in as its interim director from 3rd July. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Society of Authors, the Publishers Association and English PEN are launching a joint campaign in aid of imprisoned writers worldwide, called Speak Out. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jo Glanville is stepping down as director of English PEN after being awarded an honorary visiting fellowship at the German university Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The UK’s answer to the Nobel Prize for Literature – the £40,000 David Cohen Prize - is now being managed by New Writing North. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Writing North, in partnership with Channel 4 and Northumbria University, is to offer three aspiring writers the chance to work with independent production company Lime Pictures on mentoring and developmental schemes. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has reported a deficit of close to £90,00 in its annual report for the year ending 31st March 2016, describing it as "a challenging year". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A story collection smuggled out of North Korea - and translated by Man Booker International Prize-winner Deborah Smith - has been selected to receive a PEN Translation award from English PEN. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN is making five of its 12-strong team redundant following an organisational restructure. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN and the Society of Authors have welcomed a new report on defamation law in Northern Ireland recommending that Northern Irish law should emulate that of England and Wales. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There is "a lack of awareness within the publishing industry about the rest of the country”, New Writing North c.e.o Claire Malcolm has alleged, whilst making the business case for signing more writers from the north of England. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We'd like to build bridges between the writing development sector and the publishing industry, to address diversity and to build new readers for contemporary writing, writes Claire Malcolm of New Writing North. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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“For many, China is a black box,” said Ruediger Wischenbart, director of international affairs for BookExpo America, as part of his introduction to China By the Numbers, a panel discussion which sought to deliver straightforward data to those interested in the Chinese market. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has launched its first ever English PEN Modern Literature Festival which will see UK-based writers present new works in tribute to writers at risk around the world. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown Book Group and English PEN are holding a special vigil for imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, building on the efforts of his wife who today published a book with the publisher. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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